what are your thoughts on peppermint shrimp in the reef?

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BadRoma1

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Nov 29, 2005
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for a long time i wasn't able to keep shrimp in my reef tank. finally, i desided to get one, but cheap one this time, and try again. i got a peppermint shrimp. he lived, which is something new. usualy they die withing a day. but the first thing he did was that he jumped on top of my green pollips and just pinched few flowers off before i chased him away. i'm not worrying about it at this point, but if he will start trouble i'll move him to refugium where i have 5 ghost shrimp. by the way, can i put my ghost shrimp in the reef system? they seem to eat dirt. but anyway, what experiences did you have with peppermint shrimp? just wanted to note that this shrimp doesn't have white stripes, so he is suppostebly reef safe.
 

Fishieness

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so if he has the white stripes i assume you are talking about the camel shrimp and not the pepermints? they have been known to eat polyps as you have seen.
i had a pepermint shrimp and a CBS in my reef and they would always pick food out of my corals. the CBS ate the pep and i moved the CBS to my fowlr
 

fsn77

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Feb 22, 2006
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We have 2 peppermint shrimp in our 90g reef. They are very shy and only come out after the lights go out. They haven't bothered any of our soft corals / LPS / zoas. After buying just the two, we found out they do best in groups of 3+.

Search for images on Google or similar site for peppermint shrimp and camel shrimp and see which one you have. If it's a camel shrimp, you'll want to get it out of your reef.
 

BadRoma1

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it's peppermint for sure. but i did see him pinching flowers off of green pollips. but since i chased him away, he has been hiding in the back somewhere.
 

Max

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There is more than one variety of peppermint shirmp. Unfortunantly they look almost identical once in a blue moon ,"it was far more common a couple of years ago," one of these are imported instead of a ,"real", pepermint. They will rob zoo's, shrooms etc. It sounds like that might be what you've ran across. Hope, I'm wrong and it was just a case of curiosity on the shrimps part. I'd keep a close eye on the situation and remove the shrimp if needed.
hth
Max
 

Fishieness

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even normal peps have had problems in reefs though. people use them for aiptasia extermination. zoas dont look too much different.
i havent heard of many problems though besides with polyps
good luck with the little guy and monitor him closely
 

BadRoma1

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i've been watching him for few days. he found himself a nice spot where all the food goes from the flow before it goes around the tank. he is smart. interesting thing is that there is not a single aiptasia in his little area left. it's spotless, not even tiny aiptasia. possibly my nudibranch ate it, because he hangs out in the same area where the shrimp is and he is a real monster, big with long spines. i have seen a shrimp playing with one of my pollips. he was dragging it around with him and then just lef it alone.
 
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